And the Trudeau Government's Reaction Is? But A Real Canadian Hero Emerges in Gaza.

Deeply concerned by violence in Gaza Strip. We are saddened by deaths + injuries that occurred today + over past weeks. It is inexcusable that civilians, journalists + children have been victims. All parties to the conflict have a responsibility to ensure civilians are protected.
— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) May 14, 2018

The "all parties" business has a touch of Trump's response to the Charlottesville violence last August that led to the murder of a protester. Trump tried to claim some moral equivalence for both sides, including his white supremacist supporters.

Chrystia is not just "deeply concerned" but even "saddened" by this ongoing carnage. What a load of whitewash made all the worse by the fact that Israeli snipers deliberately targeted medical personnel at the protests, bagging 19 doctors and paramedics for the day, one of them, a Canadian doctor from London, Ontario, Tarek Loubani.

Dr. Tarek Loubani said it happened during a "lull" in the protest Monday, as he was standing with a group of paramedics about 25 metres away from the protest area

"There were no fires, there was no smoke. We had clear lines of sight to all three fortified sniper posts," said Loubani.

"All of the sudden I heard a bang, and I found myself on the ground. I looked at my leg, I saw blood."

Loubani said his colleague, a paramedic named Musa Abuhassanin, came over and began working on his injured leg.

About an hour later, Abuhassanin was shot [in the throat] and killed while attempting to rescue another person, Loubani said.

"The first rule of medical rescue is that you don't become part of the situation, you're no good to anybody if you're shot too," said Loubani, adding that his team had taken extraordinary measures to identify themselves to snipers as medical professionals.

Well there is an uplifting story for Canada in this after all. It has to do with noneother than Dr. Tarek Loubani who is featured in an interview with 3Dprint.comand the tourniquets that have saved so many civilian lives in Gaza.

Dr. Loubani is known for creating a 3D printed stethoscope that recently received clinical validation and was made for about 30 cents. Because of the blockade, hospitals in the Gaza region have faced a critical shortage of medical supplies, even simple ones like stethoscopes. The goal of the open source Glia Project is to create those much-needed medical supplies using 3D printing and make them available to whoever needs them. As Dr. Loubani, along with Dr. Mohammed Al-Attar and 25 other trained first responders entered the field at the protest site, they brought with them hundreds of 3D printed tourniquets, ready to attend to those with severe limb injuries.

“Reducing hemorrhagic deaths from limb exsanguination became a cornerstone project of the newly formed Hayat Center for Emergency and Crisis Management, based at the Islamic University of Gaza,” Dr. Loubani said. “The center has been engaged in projects like Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Basic Life Support (BLS) and Trauma Life Support (TLS). When the center tried to obtain CAT tourniquets for its new ‘Stop Bleeding’ campaign, they were almost impossible to obtain.”

This was due to the high cost of the tourniquets as well as the blockade – however, as Dr. Loubani points out, even if they could obtain Combat Application Tourniquets, CATs are specifically designed for soldiers, grown men with larger limbs. The Gaza population is mostly children, with nearly 45% under the age of 14.

“CATs do not work on a pediatric population, which would have automatically excluded most of the patient population we expect,” Dr. Loubani said.

So when the Glia Project team was approached by the Hayat Center and members of Gaza’s disaster committee, they readily agreed to develop a tourniquet using their locally manufactured, solar powered Prusa i3 MK2 3D printers and locally available and recycled filament. The team created the tourniquet for both adult and pediatric use, beginning about a year ago and reaching the field trial stage by early 2018.

“We dry-tested the tourniquets in laboratory conditions. Even in initial paramedic field trials, tourniquets were generally deployed in single-victim situations with controlled scenes,” he said. “In the field, we were trying to put tourniquets on patients while literally running, under live fire, being teargassed, or occasionally all three. This was suboptimal.”

The team returned to the field on May 14th, armed with 200 tourniquets. The old models were pulled, and the 100 units at the Hayat Center were recovered for field use. 78 of the tourniquets were used on patients whose injuries met the criteria, and not a single one failed. That didn’t mean it was a good day, though – 17 paramedics from the team were wounded and one was killed, and Dr. Loubani himself sustained a gunshot wound to the leg. Overall, 52 people were killed and 2,410 wounded on May 14th.

The pain and violence happening in Gaza are ongoing, and no one can say how long the crisis will stretch on, or how many more lives will be lost. But because of brave and resourceful individuals like those working on the Glia Project, the number of lives lost is fewer than it would have been without them and their 3D printed medical tools.

“If you would like to participate in this project, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@glia.org. If you are more technically inclined, check out the tourniquet project’s Github page, where you can file issues or make pull requests,” Dr. Loubani concludes, as more help is always needed.

If anyone deserves the Order of Canada it is surely Dr. Tarek Loubani even if it does embarrass the government of the day.

13 comments:

Toby
said...

Normally I prefer our elected leaders to be tactful and respectful on the international stage. In this instance they should be reacting with outrage. They should be telling Netanyahu that his behaviour is unacceptable. They should be giving Israel the same treatment we gave South Africa which forced it to abandon Apartheid.

As usual, the Israelis were testing new weapons systems on the Palestinians. Yesterday, it was drones dropping tear gas canisters. "Field tested and government approved, coming soon to a pipeline protest near you."

.. Canadians should be outraged.. nothing lessWe went to war in WW1 and WW2 over this kind of shitebut today we are for the most part.. fat n easyHell, it beggars belief.. this Jewish defense syndromeoh you're antisemetic ?

I give a big fluck not.. to this crap..I aint buying the horseshit saladI sniff .. and pass on the sample taste

Is this about votes & donations ?When did we descend to that ?Oh we can't anger the jewish bloc ?

Maybe somebody will update meabout the % jewish folk kn CanadaHow much they donate politically.. Hell, even are voting(Which is none of my business)

I watched "The Darkest Hour" the other night, Mound. I wonder if you have seen it. Detailing the first days of Winston Churchill as prime minister, it is a reminder of what real leadership in difficult times is, as opposed to the faux variety epitomized by people like Trudeau.

Mound, another excellent post! Dr. Loubani is a hero. In the CBC post about his own wounding their are some concerning notes. Israeli snipers are well trained and have good equipment. As the IDF itself has reported, they know (or like to believe they know) where each round is targeted. The medics and doctors (and Press!) wear identifiable clothing, yet appear to have been specifically targeted. In some cases, like Loubani, they are shot in the lower limbs (knee capped?), a potentially crippling injury using such high velocity loads. Others, like his medic colleague receive mortal wounds. Am I wrong in suggesting this “defence of our borders” action by Israel has the odious smell of state terror, a cruelty made worse by the blockade of Gaza?

Carol Off neatly skewered some Israeli sub-minister on As It Happens May 15. He was hopping mad as she quietly demolished his puerile and sinister arguments attempting to justify the shootings. There is no excuse for this manifestation of Israeli paranoia. They'll have the US invading Iran next, while giving Dick Cheney and Rupert Murdoch's Genie Energy the right to drill oil on the slopes of the Golan Heights. That train wreck was on the books three years ago and got lost/delayed during the Russian time in Syria. That blight of a conflict was fundamentalky due to Syria turning down the Qatar-Turkey natural gas pipeline across its territory in 2010. Russia wanted to sell more natural gas in the EU - no points guessing why they were on the Syrian side. Now the US sends tanker loads of LNG to Rotterdam to undermine the Russkies.

Various Israeli pols from left to right were arguing yesterday that the shootings were justified, that 1967 or was it 1973 borders, who the eff cares or knows, had to held at all costs, as if the Cossack hordes themselves were about to rip down the fences and advance from Gaza. Paranoid. Illogical. Downright demented if they truly believe their own BS. And the arguments advanced over the Israeli-populated part of Jerusalem being the capital and everyone should set up their embassies there at the same time they were knocking off Palestinians shows how far logic can be twisted.

At least Trudeau said Canada deplored the violence and urged its cessation and that Canada supported the two-state solution. Both of these points are 180 degrees from Netanyahoo and Trump - I was surprised.

"At least Trudeau said Canada deplored the violence and urged its cessation and that Canada supported the two-state solution. Both of these points are 180 degrees from Netanyahoo and Trump - I was surprised."

That's been the Official Canadian Government position, (except for Harper), since forever.

BM, by now there's no excuse for believing anything Trudeau says. If you want to judge Trudeau's veracity all you need do is examine Canada's voting record on every Palestinian issue in the UN General Assembly since the Liberals came to power.

Pierre Trudeau's motto was "reason over passion." The kid's motto is "political opportunity over principle."

I look back on a lifetime of Liberal governments. I was too young to vote for Pearson but was involved with the youth side back then. I first voted - for Pierre Trudeau and John Turner and Chretien and Martin.

Trudeau's regime is a neoliberal, conservative movement. It is not Liberal. It is a departure from Pearson, Trudeau, Turner, Chretien and Martin. It is, by far, the worst Liberal government in living memory.

Harper's overarching goal was to permanently shift Canada's political centre well to the right. Justin Trudeau's government is proof that Harper definitely succeeded.

Trudeau came to power campaigning as a genuine Liberal. Once in power he ditched all of those promises to govern in a manner remarkably reminiscent of his predecessor.

Had Pearson handed the torch to Justin rather than Pierre Trudeau, the Liberal Party would have imploded.

It's akin to today's Republicans, that gang of redneck bigots, who call themselves the party of Lincoln, the president who vanquished their Deep South base and emancipated the slaves. Old Abe must be spinning in his grave every time they mention his name.

As I mentioned to BM, Jay, all you need to know about Trudeau and Palestine is manifest in Canada's voting record at the UN General Assembly since the change of government. Judge Trudeau not by his empty words but by his deeds. They don't correspond.